On Acting, Writing and Editing – Interview

My co-editing partner in crime at Albedo One, Robert Neilson, has started up a series of short interviews he calls bloggerviews over at his blog, which will eventually be archived on the Albedo One website. And to kick the series off, he’s only gone and interviewed little ol’ moi. I’ll probably upload the interview to this site at some stage, but in the meantime, check it out here

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About John Kenny

I have had fiction published in Fear the Reaper, Emerald Eye: The Best of Irish Imaginative Fiction, Transtories, The World SF Blog, Revival Literary Journal, First Contact, FTL, Woman’s Way, Jupiter Magazine and several other venues. Currently looking for a publisher for my novel Down and Out.
I was co-editor of Albedo One from 1993 to 2013 and co-administrator of its International Aeon Award for Short Fiction from 2005 to 2013. Previous to that I edited several issues of FTL (1990 – 1992). I’ve also edited Writing4all: The Best of 2009 and Box of Delights, an original horror anthology from Aeon Press Books.

Discussion

9 thoughts on “On Acting, Writing and Editing – Interview”

Did NOT know that you played Pearse, John! And I actually watched that film when I was studying 19th/20th century Irish history, having written an essay on his nationalism, and was always disappointed we didn’t get to see more of him. This is my favourite fact of the day!

I quite enjoyed the interview, John. And it was interesting learning more about your past. The most surprising detail was your love of Marvel Comics and desire to draw comics. Speaking of which, I have over 50K comic book in my collection, 80% of them being Marvel. I was also hired personally by Stan Lee as his head writer for the Internet comic company he launched in the late 90s. I shared an office with Steve Gerber, creator of Howard the Duck. 🙂

Hi Taylor. 50k comics? I thought I was doing well with a collection of roughly 10k back in the 80s (mostly Marvel, with some DC, independants such as Cerberus, The Spirit, Elfquest, etc., US undergrounds like the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, and lots of British weeklies such as Warlord, Battle and 2000AD). Regrettably all gone now; sold in dribs and drabs to fund my social life when I had one. An estimate of what I got for them equates with a deposit on a house. Of course, buying a house was the furthest thing from my mind at the time. Amazing that you rubbed shoulders with Stan the Man and Steve Gerber. Heros of mine. I take it you’ve read Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and Jonathan Lethem’s Fortress of Solitude?

10K is a healthy collection by any measure. 50K is more like a freakish obsession. But, I still collect to this day. Not as fanatically, of course. But I just never seem to tire of the medium.

I’m still friends with Stan. In fact, we had an email exchange a week ago, as it was his birthday. I was tickled by the fact that he still closes his missives with “Excelsior!”

Gerber and I became very good friends. We actually collaborated on a hilarious horror/sci-fi/adventure project that, unfortunately, never saw the light of day. I still think of him often, and miss him dearly. He was somewhat of a mentor-figure to me, though I don’t think he realized it at the time. He shuffled from this mortal coil far too early.

Sadly, I’ve never read either the Chabon or Lethem books, although they’re on my long list of must-reads. Especially Chabon’s novel. But eventually….eventually…

Both are must reads for anyone with an interest in comics. Of course both are about much, much more than comics and I would recommend them to anyone with an interest in literature. The Chabon deals with the very beginnings of the comics industry in America, along with the early days of radio. New York is vividly imagined too. I have a review of it here. The Lethem is quite different, dealing as it does with Brooklyn specifically and the early days of graffiti and hip hop. What appeals particularly to me is the fact that Lethem is the same age as me and his experience of comics is identical to mine,i.e., the 70s stuff. The arguments his characters have about artists and writers is exactly the same as the wide-ranging discussions I had with friends back in the day.